Search results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your
selected drug is a secondary subject of discussion.
November 2023
Melatonin, which is used to help with certain conditions such as jet lag and sleep-wake disorders, is regulated as a dietary supplement, not a drug. A recent study found that melatonin gummies sold in the U.S. contain inconsistent quantities of melatonin, and the quantity is usually higher than the amount listed on the product label.
April 2020
For patients taking opioid analgesics and other drugs that depress breathing and those with lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, use of gabapentin (GRALISE, HORIZANT, NEURONTIN) or pregabalin (LYRICA) could have deadly consequences.
February 2019
For many years, we have designated the prescription sleep medication zolpidem as Do Not Use. We review the results of new research exposing the frequent misuse of this dangerous medication.
August 2018
If you are a smoker, quitting is the most important thing you can do for your health. Find out whether bupropion (ZYBAN) is an appropriate treatment option to increase your chances of successfully quitting.
May 2018
Find out why the muscle relaxant baclofen is a reasonable choice for treating reversible muscle spasms in patients with multiple sclerosis but should not be used to treat spasticity due to spinal cord injuries or other spinal cord diseases.
September 2017
In March 2017, a federal jury found the co-owner of a now-bankrupt Massachusetts compounding pharmacy guilty on more than 50 counts of racketeering and mail fraud for his role in the deadly nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012, which had been linked to tainted steroid drugs. Read the troubling details of how the company’s co-owner escaped being convicted of second-degree murder.
May 2016
For various reasons, many prescribed medications go unused. Such leftover medications can pose a hazard to family members, especially young children, and the environment. Find out the best ways to safely dispose of unused prescription medications.
April 2013
Learn about new warnings concerning multiple formulations of a widely used sleeping pill. The levels of the drug remaining in the blood the morning after use may be high enough to impair activities requiring mental alertness, including driving.
March 2009
The article lists 57 different drugs that can cause dementia if used. This can be even more problematic if more than one of these drugs is being taken. These drugs are only one class of drugs that can cause mental deterioration and next month's issue will discuss additional drugs that can also impair thinking.
September 2008
Thyroid medications are among the most widely-prescribed drugs in the U.S. In this article, we review 29 different medications that can have harmful interactions with thyroid medicines such as levothyroxine (Synthroid). There are four major kinds of interaction problems that can occur:
• Certain medications can decrease the absorption of levothyroxine resulting in lower levels in the blood.
• Other medications can increase the rate at which the body gets rid of levothyroxine, also resulting in lower thyroid levels in the blood.
• Other medications can cause changes of levothyroxine binding in blood, decreasing the body's ability to use levothyroxine.
• Levothyroxine can affect the safety or effectiveness of other medications by raising or lowering the levels of these other drugs in the blood, causing them to be either infective (lower levels) or dangerous (higher levels).
August 2008
The article discusses 273 drugs that can have harmful interactions with alcohol. Also reviewed are several ways in which these harmful interactions can occur:
1/ Medications Can Increase Alcohol Blood Levels
2/ Additive effects of medications and alcohol. One of the best- known drug-alcohol interactions is when alcohol, a depressant, is taken with other sedative medications, and excessive sedation or depression of respiration can occur
3/Alcohol can increase the blood levels of some medications leading to toxicity of these drugs.
4/ Alcohol also can reduce blood levels of some medications causing them to be less effective.
Although some of the interactions between alcohol and medications mainly occur in people who drink heavily (three or more drinks on one occasion), many of these interactions may occur with much lower amounts of alcohol use, such as one to two drinks on an occasion.
We strongly urge you to tell your physicians and other health care providers how much alcohol you are drinking so they can effectively assess the risks and advise you about the safe use of alcohol and medications.
May 2008
This article lists more than 60 prescription drugs that can interact with calcium channel blocking drugs such as amlodipine (NORVASC),diltiazem (CARDIZEM, DILACOR XR TIAZAC)or nifedipine (PROCARDIA)to either cause toxicity or to lessen the effectiveness of the calcium channel blocking drugs. Included in the lists are a number of drugs that we list in Worst Pills, Best Pills as DO NOT USE or LIMITED USE drugs. The article also explains the different kinds of toxicity that can ensue from these interactions.
April 2008
The article lists more than 30 prescription drugs that can cause the serotonin syndrome.
January 2008
More than 70 million prescriptions a year are filled for these popular antidepressants, including Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa and Lexapro. This article gives details about more than 60 other widely prescribed prescription drugs that can have harmful interactions if used with these antidepressants. The two different kinds of interactions are also discussed.
July 2005
This drug has no unique benefits, is costly and has caused cancer in an animal study.
October 2003
You should try the non-pharmacologic interventions listed in the box below before trying antacids, histamine-2 blockers, or, as a last resort, proton pump inhibitors.
If you classify yourself as a person with frequent heartburn, that is heartburn more than two days per week, and the interventions recommended above have failed, you should be under the care of a physician
July 2003
You should check the list of drugs that can cause loss of bladder control before starting drug treatment for this condition. You may be able to change from a drug that causes loss of bladder control to a drug that does not or alter the dose. This may be enough to solve the problem.
February 2002
“Inappropriate medication use is a major patient safety concern, especially for the elderly population.” This is the first sentence of a study published in the December 12, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The majority of the 33 drugs in this study have been on the market for years........
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